PCCUA to offer free film mini-course

It’s the first year for the mini-course, which will showcase three foreign films followed by discussion on each of the PCCUA campuses in DeWitt, Helena and Stuttgart.

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By Sarah Morris, smorris@stuttgartdailyleader.com

Stuttgart Daily Leader - Stuttgart, AR

By Sarah Morris, smorris@stuttgartdailyleader.com

Posted Mar. 28, 2013 at 11:32 AM
Updated Mar 28, 2013 at 1:33 PM

By Sarah Morris, smorris@stuttgartdailyleader.com

Posted Mar. 28, 2013 at 11:32 AM
Updated Mar 28, 2013 at 1:33 PM

STUTTGART

Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas (PCCUA) has launched a free spring foreign film mini-course.

It’s the first year for the mini-course, which will showcase three foreign films followed by discussion on each of the PCCUA campuses in DeWitt, Helena and Stuttgart.

English instructor Matt Forester said they chose the inaugural series to feature films from Afghanistan and Iran since both countries are often discussed in the media. The films are “The Color of Paradise,” “Osama,” and “A Separation.”

Forester said the mini-course is free through a grant initiative from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Community College Humanities Association (CCHA).

PCCUA was one of 17 colleges out of 80 applicants picked for CCHA’s “Advancing the Humanities at Community Colleges: An NEH Bridging Cultures Project.” In addition to the mini-course, PCCUA will also revise its world literature course.

“We also intend to have guest lecturers in the spring of next year,” Forester said. “To be clear, we will have one guest lecturer on each culture we are focusing on that semester come in to speak at the college for a one-time occasion at all three locations. These lectures will be open to the public.”

The project is being implemented with the help of a CCHA mentor, Dr. Kathy Fedorko. Forester said Fedorko, a professor of English emerita at Middlesex Community College in Hopewell, N.J., has advised PCCUA to not try to implement everything at once, which is why the guest lectures are not starting this semester.

According to PCCUA, “the purpose of the grant is to promote understanding of and appreciation for global cultures for students and their communities.” Future courses will focus on different cultures from around the world.

The three films, to be shown in April, are:

“The Color of Paradise”

Majid Majidi directs “The Color of Paradise.” According to movies.nytimes.com, the 1999 film follows Mohammad, a blind student in Tehran, who spends a happy summer with his sisters and grandmother at a farm.

His mother is dead and his father sometimes considers abandoning Mohammad. He later learns that his father is thinking of re-marrying and considers his handicapped son a “stumbling block” in his plans.

“The Color of Paradise,” an 81-minute film, will be shown at 5 p.m. Monday at the Fine Arts Center in Helena; 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Grand Prairie Center in Stuttgart; and 7 p.m. Wednesday in the community room in DeWitt.

“Osama”

Siddiq Barmak directs “Osama.” According to movies.nytimes.com, the 2003 film is the “first feature made in Afghanistan since before the rise of the Taliban.”

Page 2 of 2 - It follows a young girl who disguises herself as boy to work for a sympathetic shopkeeper after her mother loses her job at a Kabul hospital. According to movies.nytimes.com, it shows multiple forms of Taliban brutality while also showing “lyricism, tenderness and even comedy.”

“Osama,” an 82-minute film, will be shown at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 14, at the Fine Arts Center in Helena; 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, at the Grand Prairie Center in Stuttgart; and 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, in the community room in DeWitt.

“A Separation”

Asghar Fahradi directs “A Separation.” According to movies.nytimes.com, the 2011 film is a “social document” that focuses on the relationship between lies and truth through a middle-class Iranian married couple straddling divorce and their eleven-year-old daughter.

“It is a rigorously honest movie about the difficulties of being honest, a film that tries to be truthful about the slipperiness of truth,” the New York Times review summary said. “It also sketches a portrait — perhaps an unnervingly familiar picture for American audiences — of a society divided by sex, generation, religion and class.”

“A Separation,” a 123-minute firm, will be shown at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 21, at the Fine Arts Center in Helena; 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, at the Grand Prairie Center in Stuttgart; and 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, in the community room in DeWitt.

To participate, community members will only have to sign in to be registered for the mini-course. Contact Forester at mforester@pccua.edu or (870) 946-3506 ext. 1631 for more information.